A woman was taken into police custody late Monday in connection to the fatal shooting of two NYU students over the weekend, according to Puerto Rican police officials.
The woman was identified as the person brandishing what appears to be a gun, in a video taken at the scene, Col. Roberto Rivera Miranda of the Puerto Rico Police Department said in an interview with local station Radio Isla.
A spokesperson for the Puerto Rico Police Department said the woman has not been charged with a crime. Police circulated the video publicly, asking for help in identifying the woman.
The video captures loud firing sounds with a shaky focus. A woman’s voice can be heard saying that another woman “got a gun and she’s trying to [expletive] shoot right now.” Police have not identified the video's source.
Rivera Miranda said they were still investigating what role, if any, the woman played in the deaths of Franco Medina Angulo and Sergio Palomino Ruiz, two graduate students at the NYU Stern School of Business who were shot and killed outside of the club Emo-Y Lounge in San Juan on Saturday night.
How exactly the students were killed on Saturday remains unclear.
According to a statement provided by NYU, they were on a trip with a small group of classmates "on a brief holiday from their studies." NYU spokesperson John Beckman said the university had been told that the students appeared to be “bystanders caught in an altercation between two unrelated groups.”
Police are also investigating the possibility of other suspects in the shooting, Rivera Miranda said on Radio Isla. Rivera Miranda confirmed that police are looking into what role the bouncers may have played in the shooting as part of “various” other footage and elements police are investigating.
“There’s evidence that the bouncers also made shots?” radio journalist Julio Rivera Saniel asked the colonel in Spanish.
“Yes, definitely, so we will be working with that once we conclude with what needs to be done in the investigative process,” Rivera Miranda said.
The colonel noted in the interview that club owners have not been cooperating.
“The university has been in touch with the remaining group members to offer them support and aid; none of the others were injured,” Beckman, said in a statement. “NYU has also reached out to the families of the slain students to provide whatever assistance we can and to express the sympathies of the university community.”
“NYU grieves today with the family, loved ones and friends of these students, whose lives ended tragically, suddenly and far too early,” the statement adds.
Rivera Miranda did not rule out the possibility of other suspects in the case.
“Our investigation is expansive, it continues expanding, and we are going to continue conducting it so we can prove to the country who caused this,” he said on Radio Isla.
